Last weekend we went on a last-minute trip to Au, Austria for a ski weekend. We waited to ensure the weather looked halfway decent before booking anything, then just bailed on work Friday afternoon and headed out. We stayed in a hotel called "Krone in Au" which had the most amazing solar room on its roof. Tons of windows and sunlight, lounge chairs, free tea, water, and apples, multiple saunas, a fireplace, ... we napped and read in there both Saturday and Sunday afternoon and would definitely go back. The rest of the hotel was also nice, meals were good, etc. My only complaint was that the dinners were a little too creative - sometimes we couldn't name half the things on our plates.
Anyway, we really went to ski/snowboard. On Saturday we went to Diedamskopf, which is the small ski resort located in Au. We had gorgeous blue skies, above freezing temperatures, and not too much of a crowd. Below are some pictures of views from Diedamskopf.
An action shot of Martin coming down to the lift:
My hot chocolate at lunch. It was amazing. And yes I already took a bite out of the whipped cream on top, I couldn't wait.
Martin taking a short break and enjoying the view.
Once we were done skiing and snowboarding, we took advantage of all the walking trails at the top of the peaks and did a little hike to the very top and took a few pictures. Below is Martin almost to the top, followed by some of the view from the top, and then our sad attempt at a selfie.
On Sunday, we rented cross-country skis and skied around an 8-mile loop in Au and its neighboring town. Well, Martin did the entire loop; my boots gave me such bad blisters I had to quit after 3.5 miles. But that gave me enough time to make a new cat friend. He was so friendly and not at all afraid of me on skis. He just rolled all over them and purred.
A few pics of the cross-country skiing trails and their surroundings. There was not much snow - definitely not a great year for snow in this part of Austria. But, the xc trails follow along a stream and through the villages so it's a quite enjoyable way to spend a few hours. The sun even came out for an hour or two!
I took this neat pic outside of the ski shop while we were returning our skis.
It was supposed to snow on Monday and I wanted to go for a walk while it was snowing because I never get to see snow where we live in Germany ... BUT ... we woke up Monday morning to heavy fog and rain. Par for the course during winter in central Europe, unfortunately. So we just rolled into the car and drove home after breakfast.
